1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods of, computer programs for and apparatus for control and/or observation of a device with communication capabilities by a controller device with hypertext or hypermedia communication capabilities. More particular, but not exclusively, the present invention relates to methods of, computer programs for and apparatus for control and observation of a consumer electronics device with communications capability from a mobile controller device with hypertext or hypermedia communications capability over a proximity bearer.
2. Description of the Related Technology
Techniques of remotely controlling consumer electronics devices, such as CD players are known. Conventional remote controllers are device-specific and factory-programmed—i.e. pre-programmed in an unchangeable way—to operate the particular device. Typically, such remote controllers will have keypads with buttons which, when pressed, will instruct the device to perform a particular function. Often, the remote controller will communicate with the device using Infra Red Data Association (IrDA) as the bearer medium and both the controller and the device will have IrDA communications hardware and software entities—i.e. IrDA transmitters and/or receivers, and IrDA protocol stacks. Most remote controllers have a one-way communication relationship with the device they control. Thus, instructions are sent from the remote controller to the device but data is not sent from the device back to the remote controller.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing the one-way flow of control data from the controller side (i.e. a remote controller) to the controlled side (i.e. the consumer electronics device) according to the prior art.
Controllers with two-way communications relationships with devices are known. For example, Sony™ have developed remote controllers which are factory-programmed for Sony™ devices but which have the capability of receiving status information from those devices and displaying it to a user on a display screen on the remote controller.
User-programmable remote controllers are also known. For example, the Philips Pronto™ and the Marantz™ RC500. Typically, user-programmable remote controllers are factory-programmed for particular devices but may be re-programmed by a user to function as remote controllers for new devices by either learning the control messages used by a device-specific factory-programmed remote controller (i.e. by pointing the factory-programmed remote controller IrDA transmitter at an IrDA receiver of the re-programmable controller which learns the control messages parasitically as the user exercises the control options available on the factory-programmed controller), or by connecting the re-programmable controller to a computing device, such as a personal computer (PC) and downloading control programs pre-configured for the new device from the Internet.
Consumer electronics devices connected to the Internet are known. For example, microwave ovens are known which may be connected to the Internet using a modem and the public switched telephone network (PSTN) for downloading cooking settings. Also, vending machines, such as Coke™ vending machines, are known which have connection to a data network and which include a server, such as a finger daemon server, for remote interrogation by a client device also connected to the data network. This may be used by a user of the remote client device to find out whether the Coke™ machine has any cans available for vending without the user needing to physically go to the machine.
One problem with the above-described approach to controlling devices is that the controller is typically specific to a particular device or a set of particular devices and must be pre-programmed (either by the manufacturer or the user) with all the capabilities of the controlled device that the user wishes to control. Another problem with the above-described approaches to controlling devices is that the method of control is unreliable. For example, one-way remote controllers have no way of determining whether a user instruction has been properly received by the device. This is particularly the case with IrDA remote controllers which require line of sight to the device. Furthermore, with two-way communication between remote controller and device, reliability can be even more of a problem. For example, where the remote controller maintains state relating to the operational status of the device, the unreliability of communicating commands to the device and the unreliability of receiving status from the device means that the state maintained in the remote controller may not be synchronised with the actual state of the device.
One problem with the above described approach to receiving status information at a controller device from a controlled device is that the controlled device must have knowledge of the capabilities of the controller device—for example, the display capabilities of the controller device.